The mob that hails the man on horseback, the Caesars and conquering heroes, does not retain its freedoms for long.
Interpretation
Historical admiration often leads to the loss of individual freedoms.
Sidney Hook suggests that societies that glorify and idolize powerful leaders or heroes, such as conquerors, may inadvertently sacrifice their freedoms. This reflects a cautionary stance on the dangers of hero worship and authoritarianism, emphasizing that the allure of strong figures can lead to oppression rather than liberty.
In practice
During a discussion about historical leaders, one might reference this quote to highlight the risks of authoritarianism.
A liberal education will impart an awareness of the amazing and precious complexity of human relationships. Since those relationships are violated more often out of insensitiveness than out of deliberate intent, whatever increases sensitiveness of perception and understanding humanizes life.
Everyone recognizes a distinction between knowledge and wisdom. . . Wisdom is a kind of knowledge. It is knowledge of the nature, career, and consequences of human values. Since these cannot be separated from the human organism and the social scene, the moral ways of man cannot be understood without knowledge of the ways of things and institutions.
In contrast to totalitarianism, democracy can face and live with the truth about itself.
Tolerance always has limits - it cannot tolerate what is itself actively intolerant.
Idealism, alas, does not protect one from ignorance, dogmatism, and foolishness.
The easiest rationalization for the refusal to seek the truth is the denial that truth exists.
In my hometown of New Orleans, grief is a public spectacle that, somewhat paradoxically, necessitates celebration. The dead are not mourned so much as they are posthumously venerated with music and dance.
Thus each of us had to be content to live only for the day, alone under the vast indifference of the sky.
What freedom men and women could have, were they not constantly tricked and trapped and enslaved and tortured by their sexuality! The only drawback in that freedom is that without it one would not be a human. One would be a monster.
You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.
...'I thought the rule was that all monks were shaved.' 'Oh, Soto says he is bald under the hair,'said Lu Tze. 'He says the hair is a separate creature that just happens to live on him.
Psychology is action, not thinking about oneself. We continue to shape our personality all our life. To know oneself, one should assert oneself.
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